To do what you love adds pressure because you first have to find what you like, know what you are good at and realise your strengths. Then you have to work hard at it, continually living with the self-doubt of 'am I good enough?'. Although it can be fun, doing what you love does not necessarily make you happy.

Do what you love

The initial stage of 'loving it' may be attractive, but it requires dedication and determination and many hours of work. Some parts of the work may even be hated. It is the same for any job. It is only exciting in the beginning; the rest is just hard work.

Anything worth doing is hard work

The reason nobody says it's hard work is that no-one wants to work hard. Hard work doesn't sell. What people sell is to know the 'why'. It sells quickly while promising fast results with little work. But it isn't realistic. In the end, everything good takes time, hard work, discipline and dedication.

Hard work doesn’t sell

<div>
I hear this all the time ' do what you love', 'i f you don't do what you love you don't live' or ' you have to live your dreams'....This is completely and utterly I cannot swear here but I would use a word that's not elegant at all. If people actually said how hard it is to do what you love probably most people be so happy doing what they do. It's such a nonsense ' do what you love ' it adds extra pressure too. Because I have to find what I love, I have to know what I am good at and realise what my strengths are. Imagine all this pressure to find out what I love and then do it. It's just madness really. For instance, I see my wonderful husband being happy what he does, he loves his job, if he could he would just do his job all the time. However, what I often fail to notice is how hard he actually works.
<h2>Doing what you love is an illusion because that's not what makes you happy</h2>
When I was working in the corporate world for a good few years and an agency world I always dreamed of being full time writer and to finally have the time to write my book. Well, this time has come and here I am writing, blogging and working on my book. However, it really isn't what I expected it to be. I was sold on the idea if I do what I love I'll never have to work and I will be continuously happy. How naive I was! No wonder because all social media platforms screaming saying " if you do what you love you'll never need to work again". Such a lie! Do you know how many hours, days, weeks I spend agonising about one tiny article or my book? How many hours I spend thinking about it, writing it and then looking it over and perfecting it and then going back to reading and writing again and not liking it, and not having it ready for any of the blogs....? Do you know how many hours I spend just researching and reading blogs and looking up what other writers/authors do...? It's a bloody hard work. And that's not it. There's a constant internal fight with yourself ' am I good enough?' or ' what I write is relevant?' or ' does it matter what I write?' And then there's ' I don't feel like writing today '. So I have this constant fight with my inner demons. The production, how much do you write a day? Does this make me happy? No. Yeah it's great I get to write but the pressure to 'perform' is probably harder than anyone has said.
<h2>Anything you set your mind to doing is going to be hard work</h2>
Let's take those rosy glasses off and actually face what's real here. Whatever I do is going to be hard work. The initial stage of 'loving it' may be attractive and inviting, however, as I go along I will learn that it requires dedication, determination and many hours put in it. Most of the time, I will have to do things I don't like or even hate; for example, some people hate putting their ideas on paper, some hate marketing themselves, some hate doing their websites, some hate just how long it takes, some don't like the practise of it, some don't like long hours....but this is real! If I want to love what I do it's not rosy and it's not necessarily happy. Stop chasing this idea if " you do what you love you will be happy " because this idea isn't true. If you don't want to take my word for it see it for yourself. Think about it when you started your new job or when you got an idea for a film or set up your own company or business, how happy and excited you were at the beginning and where are you now with it? Has it materialised or is it still in a process? Is it hard work or is it as people say - easy?
<h2>Hard work doesn't sell</h2>
The reason nobody says it's hard work because no-one wants to work hard. Hard work doesn't sell either. Hard work is not in fashion right now. What people sell is I have to know my 'why'! My brother is a talented electrician, do I think he enjoys the hard work? No. In fact, he probably doesn't like it most of the time but he is great at it and works seriously hard. Does he know his 'why'? No. All he knows is hard work and to provide for his family. Do you think all those coaches online would have any clients if they said doing what you love is hard work? They are all selling quick, easy way to get rich and famous. They are all promising fast results with little work. They are all promoting easy way to earn cash. I don't blame them because there's a market for it. Everyone wants to be famous, rich doing nothing and doing it fast. Think of Kardashians! Just remember everything good takes time, and hard work, and discipline, and dedication. I hope people choose hard work over " what I love " because hard work will give you everything you ever dream of.
</div>

I hear this all the time 'do what you love', 'if you don't do what you love you don't live' or 'you have to live your dreams'....This is completely and utterly I cannot swear here but I would use a...

Happiness isn't what you love doing

Do what you love

Anything worth doing is hard work

Hard work doesn’t sell

CURATED BY

Related collections

More like this